What do I do D:

[Peach]

Well today I had an appointment scheduled for someone to look at my two kits out of a rehomed rescue....This morning I went to check them over and noticed one of the babies was having difficulty getting water. I held the ball down to drip water into his mouth and noticed something odd about his teeth....The bottom are overlapping the top and they are crooked. I know that I can't help him and I would never sell a rabbit with bad teeth because then I would be no better than a pet store that doesn't care what they sell. Here are some pictures of their teeth....the buck is the one with the bad teeth. If you look closely at the photo you will see the the bottom teeth have these white marks on them that I think the upper teeth are hitting them. I also have a picture of the sister for comparison. They are at 4 weeks as of today. Is there any chance that his teeth could grow out of this? If they don't I understand the quality of life as an adult rabbit would be poor, so I would cull him. My boyfriend is a reptile guy and has connections to other reptile people that have requested for culls that cannot be petted out. The circle of life happens ,but I want to do the best that I can with him before I make that decision.

Buck

Buck

Doe<br /><br />__________Fri Jan 20, 2012 10:47 am __________<br /><br />He is the best out of the two too with his awesome temperment :'(

 

[Bramble Hedge]

There is no chance he will grow out of it, sometimes if the teeth meet flush they can sometimes grow out of it but I think as his are already overlapping it isn't good, this problem is highly herritable and the whole family tree will be carrying this problem. If the other kit is bred its offspring can have this problem also.

 

[Peach]

Yeah... I didn't think so. :'( The other kit is going to go to a pet home and I think I will inform them of what is behind her. The daughter has been waiting very patiently for these rabbits instead of running off because instant gratification didn't occur. I always encourage pet home spay/neuter their rabbits. In this case, I'll really press for it to be done because nothing is wrong with her. It just sucks

 

[ottersatin]

The Kit with butted teeth really should be culled,
[as a Reptile food] you DO NOT want this continued
in anyone's line/herd. You might want to think about
culling one or both parents. this condition did not
just appear out of nowhere, it is a genetic factor.
Something to think about anyway.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[Miss M]

Bramble's right. It's called malocclusion, and it only gets worse. If you google "malocclusion of teeth in rabbits", you will see some pretty horrifying pictures, and you can reed some more about it, including many, many stories of suffering rabbits.

Some people manage it by regularly trimming the rabbit's teeth (I can't even imagine attempting that), which is fine as long as it is their rabbit for life and they never, ever breed the rabbit.

Since you are not looking to keep these rabbits, I would definitely cull the buck, sweet personality and all, unfortunately. You just cannot know that the person who says today that he will faithfully trim the rabbit's teeth will actually do it -- and if he does not, the rabbit is in for a life of pain and suffering and malnutrition.

I would even consider culling the doe, since if she is ever bred, she would very likely produce rabbits with maloccluded teeth like the buck. As with the teeth trimming, will the person who promises never to breed the doe actually never breed the doe?

That's entirely your call, though.

Added: Okay, I didn't realize it was a patient little girl waiting on the buns. Hopefully, you can get across to her mom just how serious the tooth issue is, and you can impress upon her the necessity of getting the doe spayed, so that she never has the opportunity to produce babies with the tooth problem.

 

[Peach]

I will probably have him culled tomorrow then. The doe was a rescue and is petted out to my best friend who I know has no intention of breeding/selling her. That is the one thing I know for sure. The father is unknown as well since she just happened to give birth a bit after her arrival. Thank you for your input everyone. Not the easiest decision I've had to make, but it's for the best. I will speak to the parents and let them know about it when they come to their appointment tomorrow.

 

[Miss M]

Oh, that's excellent, then, that you know the recipient so well!!!

 

[Jack]

Don't breed it
SOME of them are due to the dumb rabbit, my wife has a polish that judge DROOL over, expect the expletive just HAS to pull on the wire, he HAD good teeth, now, no
you can trim the lower teeth back to nubs and hope the uppers grow down enough to force the lowers behind again.

 

[akane]

I would think if you really trim the long teeth they might meet again and be fine. As is the mouth can't close without the teeth being pushed out of alignment. I've seen cases where the teeth were moving the jaw so they weren't aligned instead of the teeth not lining up because they had grown weird from rodents doing odd things in their environment. Sometimes it fixes if you can let the jaw line back up. The fronts aren't that hard to trim but you'd need the correct tool and angle to prevent cracking them which will go all the way up the gum line eventually and make the teeth fall out or sometimes even grow sideways at the splits. Best to instant cull if you screw up.